Pharmacy will-call systems are utilized to manage articles selected to fulfill patient prescription orders prior to pick-up by the patient. The articles will typically consist of medication containers such as bottles, vials, boxes, bags, pouch packages, etc. The articles for each patient prescription order are checked for accuracy by a registered pharmacist and then placed in one or more bags. A pharmacy-generated label identifying the patient for whom the prescription order is intended and providing information about the prescriptions in each bag is typically stapled to each bag. The label typically includes a bar code identifying at least a prescription number for the prescription order. The prescription number is utilized by the pharmacy to associate the prescription order with a particular patient.
The bag or bags holding the articles for the patient prescription order is/are then delivered to the will-call system to await arrival of the patient or other authorized person to pick up the articles. A simple will-call system can consist of a collection of bins grouped alphabetically. In such a system, all prescription orders for patient names beginning with a particular letter are placed in the bin for that letter. A disadvantage of this type of will-call system is that all of the bags are co-mingled in each bin and the pharmacy technician must look through the entire contents of the appropriate bin to retrieve the bag or bags for the patient. Making this task more difficult is the fact that the bags are typically monochromatic white in color and look alike.
Another disadvantage with will-call systems is that such systems are not optimally efficient in terms of using available storage space within the pharmacy. Storage space in any pharmacy is of great importance. The more storage space that is available, the greater the quantity of products that can be stocked at the pharmacy. Space represents money to a pharmacy.
Will-call systems which store prescription-order articles grouped alphabetically do not provide optimum storage density. Will-call bins or storage locations for patients with surnames starting with a more frequently-occurring first letter can be overfilled, while bins or storage locations for patients with surnames starting with a less frequently-occurring first letter are not completely filled. This can result in a situation in which the contents of overfilled bins become disorganized and difficult to manage while other bins remain only partially utilized wasting valuable storage space.
It would be an advance in the art to provide a pharmacy will-call and prescription order article management system which would improve the organization and delivery of patient prescription orders, which would make it easier and faster to locate and obtain fulfilled patient prescription order articles, which would be space efficient and which would generally improve pharmacy efficiency and the quality of patient care.